Dreaded upgrade notice

[rocker57]

Just received email for our upcoming cruise, that princess was upgrading us from our E731 to D423 on Crown. I phoned up right away to decline, and she said you prefer to stay in the back. I said yes, it is a bigger and covered balcony. One of the reason I picked this cruise. I did tell her if she wanted to put us in a penthouse suite, I didn't see a problem, she didn't bite:)

[-Lew-]

Are you aware you can indicate no upgrade in your booking? If you're as particular about your cabin location as we are, you might want to have Princess or your TA check that box in your record.

 

Lew

[dplusd]

Just received email for our upcoming cruise, that princess was upgrading us from our E731 to D423 on Crown. I phoned up right away to decline, and she said you prefer to stay in the back. I said yes, it is a bigger and covered balcony. One of the reason I picked this cruise. I did tell her if she wanted to put us in a penthouse suite, I didn't see a problem, she didn't bite:)

 

I'm curious if you have your reservation marked Do Not Upgrade? I have one of the extended balcony mini-suites on Emerald deck booked for an upcoming cruise and noted Do Not Upgrade on my reservation. I would be upset if they "upgraded" me to a mid-ship mini on Dolphin deck with the exposed balconies, which I hate.

[aquilegia]

Even if you mark it 'Do not upgrade' you could still be moved. It's a request, not a guarantee.

[dandonna]

I hate it when they try to upgrade us too.

My wife and I love our inside Lido deck cabin and we have chosen the same cabin for 5 straight cruises. We love the location, we love the convenience of knowing exactly where everything is from our room, and we love how dark the room is for our 5pm-630pm pre-dinner nap. When we get back from the excursions or day at the pool there is nothing like 90 minutes of napping in the cool pitch black room, then a fresh shower, and off to the 8pm dinner and late night of dancing! We actually twice had a Princess rep argue with us that the ocean view room or obstructed balcony they wanted to put us in for an upgrade was better. We said NO. We love our cabin and don't want anything else!

Stop the upgrade fairy!!! :eek:

Edited December 3, 2014 by dandonna

[OCruisers]

Always, before any sort of automatic upgrade (when marked, no upgrade) our TA has been called to see if we wanted it before it was done.

LuLu

[cr83687]

I too just got an email notifying me I was upgraded from Emerald Mini Suite to Dolphin.....I called and said thanks but no thanks. Like the covered balcony.

[Thrak]

I hate it when they try to upgrade us too.

My wife and I love our inside Lido deck cabin and we have chosen the same cabin for 5 straight cruises. We love the location, we love the convenience of knowing exactly where everything is from our room, and we love how dark the room is for our 5pm-630pm pre-dinner nap. When we get back from the excursions or day at the pool there is nothing like 90 minutes of napping in the cool pitch black room, then a fresh shower, and off to the 8pm dinner and late night of dancing! We actually twice had a Princess rep argue with us that the ocean view room or obstructed balcony they wanted to put us in for an upgrade was better. We said NO. We love our cabin and don't want anything else!

Stop the upgrade fairy!!! :eek:

 

My wife and I are trying an inside on Lido deck in February. Do you mind telling me which is the cabin you like so much?

[Griller]

I started out with a balcony G'tee, now I have 3 x B2B coming up starting tomorrow, and a different cabin each cruise, been a lot of changes notified to me.

Just today they changed tomorrow's cabin for the 3rd time, BB aft-ish on Aloha now, suits me fine, I spend a lot of time in Club Fusion, Explorers or the buffet, very handy.

I won't be surprised if I stay in this for the 3 cruises, but no problem if not, I'm travelling light with just a carry on.

Thank goodness for free laundry.

[Colo Cruiser]

To the OP, you are lucky that you did not lose the cabin. Many times they make the switch and its too late to revert.

[dchip]

I check my booking every darn day to make sure there are no upgrades. Yes, it is marked Do Not Upgrade but we all know how that goes.

 

We have an obstructed deluxe balcony at the bow. That is the cabin we want. It is the lowest category deluxe balcony. :eek: so the chance of an upgrade is fairly good. But not for us!!

 

Cheers, Denise

[dandonna]

My wife and I are trying an inside on Lido deck in February. Do you mind telling me which is the cabin you like so much?

 

Hi Thrak,

Cabin choice is all personal preference (some love balconies, OVs,etc) but based on what we enjoy on our cruises we love Lido 252 or 248 for a number of reasons. The price is low so we get 2 inside cabin cruises for the price of one balcony cabin cruise. That means we usually do back to back cruises. Also my wife is at the spa daily so it is just 1 flight above us. I am at the gym daily and that is 1 flight above us. We spend our sea days at the sanctuary so that is 1 flight above us. The mermaid bar is just outside and down the hall from our cabin for our morning bloody mary or afternoon champagne. Plus the fact you go from your inside cabin to the outside deck in 30 seconds. Again not everyone's choice but we have done the same cabin on Ruby, Crown, Emerald, Caribbean, and now the Ruby again in 30 days!. Happy cruising.

[BarbaraP]

Just received email for our upcoming cruise, that princess was upgrading us from our E731 to D423 on Crown. I phoned up right away to decline, and she said you prefer to stay in the back. I said yes, it is a bigger and covered balcony. One of the reason I picked this cruise. I did tell her if she wanted to put us in a penthouse suite, I didn't see a problem, she didn't bite:)

 

That's why you should mark your booking "Meta Upgrade Only", so they know that the only upgrade you will except is to a full suite. Meta Upgrade Only means upgrade a full class not ME to MA but ME to S.;)

[JimmyVWine]

Perhaps it is just that people in these cabins post their complaints more often because of the change from a huge balcony to a normal balcony, but it seems that there are a disproportionate number of posts involving the dreaded unwanted upgrade involving the aft corner Mini-Suites. Do you suppose that the Princess computer system has these marked as the least desirable "ME" Mini-Suites and is quick to move people out of them? Or perhaps there are VIP/Elites who call Princess and try to get themselves booked into these cabins after they have already been sold, and Princess accommodates the callers by "upgrading" the existing passengers out of that cabin? Or do you just think that statistically, people in these cabins get upgraded just as frequently as other passengers, but because of the dramatic change in circumstances (moved from a covered, wrap-around balcony to an uncovered regular balcony), they just post their experiences here more often?

[satxdiver]

I most always mark my res as do not upgrade but on a few occasions that seems to have been ignored. Luckily on those occasions I have been able to get it switched back but not always the same cabin. I like to stay in the aft area but not the stern and port side but am amenable to a starboard cabin in the same area. The general area is fine with me making any change easy. My only advice is to check your cabin assignment regularly and that means at least every week for changes and then get on the phone to Princess or your TA immediately when changes show up.

[Av8tor]

That's why you should mark your booking "Meta Upgrade Only", so they know that the only upgrade you will except is to a full suite. Meta Upgrade Only means upgrade a full class not ME to MA but ME to S.;)

 

You have to be careful with that Meta Upgrade too. You might get "upgraded" from a mini to a window suite and lose your balcony. Full suites are not the only meta's from minis...

[Steven_&_Daniel]

Hi Thrak,

Cabin choice is all personal preference (some love balconies, OVs,etc) but based on what we enjoy on our cruises we love Lido 252 or 248 for a number of reasons. The price is low so we get 2 inside cabin cruises for the price of one balcony cabin cruise. That means we usually do back to back cruises. Also my wife is at the spa daily so it is just 1 flight above us. I am at the gym daily and that is 1 flight above us. We spend our sea days at the sanctuary so that is 1 flight above us. The mermaid bar is just outside and down the hall from our cabin for our morning bloody mary or afternoon champagne. Plus the fact you go from your inside cabin to the outside deck in 30 seconds. Again not everyone's choice but we have done the same cabin on Ruby, Crown, Emerald, Caribbean, and now the Ruby again in 30 days!. Happy cruising.

 

We do the same thing for the same reasons, LOL. The only difference is I'm in the gym every day. Looking at a deck plan, it looks like you pick the mid ship category. We go even cheaper and book the forward category, but we book the cabin that is furthest aft within that category (basically right next to yours, LOL). We love being a few steps away from the pool area. It's like having a really huge balcony with a bar, and you can people-watch too! :D

[caribill]

You have to be careful with that Meta Upgrade too. You might get "upgraded" from a mini to a window suite and lose your balcony. Full suites are not the only meta's from minis...

 

Nobody has every posted an upgrade from a cabin with a balcony to a window suite.

 

Most upgrades to window suites seem to have been from oceanview cabins.

[latebloomer56]

We always pick our cabin. We enjoyed the mini's on Dolphin deck for several trips then discovered deck 8 mini's well there is no going back for us. We always have our booking listed as NO UPGRADES.

However I didn't know they could still move us. I would hope they would send us some kind of notice.

Thank you very much I will need to keep a watch as we try to book way in advance.

[cruzsnooze]

I hate it when they try to upgrade us too.

My wife and I love our inside Lido deck cabin and we have chosen the same cabin for 5 straight cruises. We love the location, we love the convenience of knowing exactly where everything is from our room, and we love how dark the room is for our 5pm-630pm pre-dinner nap. When we get back from the excursions or day at the pool there is nothing like 90 minutes of napping in the cool pitch black room, then a fresh shower, and off to the 8pm dinner and late night of dancing! We actually twice had a Princess rep argue with us that the ocean view room or obstructed balcony they wanted to put us in for an upgrade was better. We said NO. We love our cabin and don't want anything else!

Stop the upgrade fairy!!! :eek:

Did you know the black out drapes on the ocean view and balcony cabins make the room just as dark when they are closed. When you're not taking a nap the natural light can be let in or not.

[dandonna]

Did you know the black out drapes on the ocean view and balcony cabins make the room just as dark when they are closed. When you're not taking a nap the natural light can be let in or not.

 

we have done the balcony and OV but still not as dark as our little cabin. :D

Just our choice and again can't beat the price!!!!

Edited December 5, 2014 by dandonna

[ontheweb]

Going by these boards, it seems the unwanted upgrade after the passengers have picked their cabin it the number one complaint that loyal Princess cruise passengers have. You would think that if Princess monitors these boards, they would also come to the same conclusion.

 

Here's our story. This past summer we were on the Ocean Princess for a British Isles cruise. We had booked it way back in October, over 9 months before the sailing.

 

When I originally read on these boards about unwanted "upgrades", I called our TA and asked if this could happen to us. He said, "No, he had picked our cabin." (He knows our wants well, and also had booked a group of cabins on the ship."

 

Then one day, when checking out the personalizer, I saw we had been upgraded from our inside in the middle of the ship to an OV. Okay, we can live with that depending on the location. It turned out it was right below the casino bar (or maybe it was right above, I don't remember for sure). Now DW is a teacher, you know one of those people who with their back turned can still hear whispers from the back of the room. It would have been much too loud for her at night. We asked him to turn down the upgrade, or if they really wanted to upgrade us get us a different OV, or lol we could live with a suite.

 

Later, he got back to me. They said there were no other OVs, and our original cabin was now "out of the inventory". After more time, he eventually got us a cabin a few doors away from our original cabin. It was fine with us, near to everything. (Not that anything is ever far away on the Ocean Princess.)

 

He said he never got an e-mail informing him of the upgrade, though they claimed they sent one. When I asked why they did this, his reply was "It's their ship. They can do whatever they want."

 

I did look at the names on the original cabin; there were three of them. I wonder if they needed an inside cabin that could accommodate more than two, and that's why we were moved.

[caribill]

Going by these boards, it seems the unwanted upgrade after the passengers have picked their cabin it the number one complaint that loyal Princess cruise passengers have. You would think that if Princess monitors these boards, they would also come to the same conclusion.

 

Here's our story. This past summer we were on the Ocean Princess for a British Isles cruise. We had booked it way back in October, over 9 months before the sailing.

 

When I originally read on these boards about unwanted "upgrades", I called our TA and asked if this could happen to us. He said, "No, he had picked our cabin." (He knows our wants well, and also had booked a group of cabins on the ship."

 

 

If your TA did not mark the reservation "will not accept upgrades", it would not matter if you picked a particular cabin or just had a GTY. Princess could upgrade you without asking and notify your TA after the fact.

 

If the TA did mark the reservation "will not accept upgrades", Princess is not supposed to upgrade you without first sending the TA a message with the upgrade option along with a deadline to reject the upgrade.

 

Now sometimes the notification to the TA somehow never makes it to the eyes of the TA and then on to the passenger. You can pick the reason why"

o Princess did not actually send the notice

o Princess sent the message but the TA overlooked it or it went into spam or for another reason it was not seen

o TA saw the message but failed to act on it.

o other

[pablo222]

Did you know the black out drapes on the ocean view and balcony cabins make the room just as dark when they are closed. When you're not taking a nap the natural light can be let in or not.

 

You are obviously not a dark purist.

 

For instance, the light in the thermostat on princess bothers

me, and I have to cover it.

 

The curtains are NOT the same as an inside cabin.

[lolane1]

Did you know the black out drapes on the ocean view and balcony cabins make the room just as dark when they are closed. When you're not taking a nap the natural light can be let in or not.

 

Also, many, many times you can't get those drapes to close completely and sunlight works its way in. A real bummer when you're trying to sleep late in the morning.